


Smile a breath of spring

by fannishliss



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-16
Updated: 2012-04-16
Packaged: 2017-11-26 15:26:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/651795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fannishliss/pseuds/fannishliss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rose is stranded in the past, an unexpected stranger comes to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smile a breath of spring

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be really curious to know what you all think of this.  You know I am a die-hard Doctor/Rose shipper!  but I do find this to be within the realm of possibility.  :)

**title: "Smile a breath of spring"**  
author: [](http://fannishliss.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://fannishliss.livejournal.com/)**fannishliss**  
rating: G  
pairing: Doctor/Rose, also Doctor/River  
spoilers:    PotW  slight AU

summary: When Rose is stranded in the past, an unexpected stranger comes to help.

author's note: I'll be really curious to know what you all think of this.  You know I am a die-hard Doctor/Rose shipper!  but I do find this to be within the realm of possibility.  :)

Written for [](http://mahmfic.livejournal.com/profile)[**mahmfic**](http://mahmfic.livejournal.com/) 's [prompt of Dolly Parton's song Jolene](http://doctor-rose-fix.livejournal.com/262501.html?thread=6419301#t6419301) (one of my favorite songs of all time) [the spring Doctor/Rose fixathon](http://doctor-rose-fix.livejournal.com/262501.html)

 

Rose was too miserable to stay in the flat, and too miserable to sit still for long.  She paced the streets in circles, unable to stray too far from the somnolent Tardis, hoping against hope that the ship would somehow wake up, come back to life, and carry her back again into the distant, desperate future.  

So she found herself in that same chip shop again, at her wits end, unable even to eat, but still somehow compelled to fill her lungs with the grease-heavy air of the chippy, drawing patterns on the sticky tabletops with a finger wet from the condensation of her soft drink.    By and by her mum or Mickey would appear, attempt to distract her, but it wouldn't work.  How could it? How could they expect her to bear it, this ordinary life, while somewhere in time, the Doctor was fighting for his life -- and probably losing? If he'd thought he would win, he wouldn't have sent her away -- would he?

"Rose Tyler, yes?"  A woman's voice interrupted Rose's maddened swirl of thoughts.

"Yes?"  Rose answered.

The first thing she noticed was the hair -- great heaps of strawberry blonde curls tumbling wildly about a smiling, mischievous face.  There was laughter in that generous mouth, but something in the eyes -- a sadness, a patience, a trauma? -- something that moved Rose's heart within her.

"Can I help you?" Rose found herself asking.

The woman laughed, a low, lovely, cultured laugh.  "Oh, darling, aren't you just as precious as he always claimed!  I knew you would be!"  The woman sank gracefully into the seat opposite Rose, just as if some maitre d' had shown her to the best seat of a five star establishment.  Rose wouldn't have been surprised at a rhinestone-studded clutch and opera gloves instead of the tight denim jacket and cowboy boots the woman sported.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Rose frowned.

"Who?" the woman echoed, laughing merrily.  "Quite!  River Song -- Doctor --  and Mrs. Who."

"I'm sorry?" Rose repeated, blushing.  She was beginning to feel embarrassed for the woman, who seemed to be a little too strange for this world.

The woman bit down on her lip and opened her eyes wide in an attempt to look serious.  "Forgive me, Rose -- just call me River."

"Who are you?"  Rose repeated numbly.  If this went on, she'd simply have to leave.  She was too exhausted to have cryptic conversations with mad strangers.

"I, my dear, am the Doctor's wife," River said, and as the world seemed to hush and fade around her in the wake of the woman's words, Rose saw utter sincerity in the wide blue eyes.

"What -- are you a Time Lord then?" Rose heard herself blurt, stunned.  "I thought -- he said -- his people had all gone."

River's mouth trembled at the corner.  She seemed always to be smiling, no matter what. "They have, my dear -- and pray you never meet any of them.  Wicked, wicked.  Not like him at all, the majority of them -- not in the least."

"Then -- " Rose faltered, feeling tears well up in her eyes.  "Human?  And -- and -- he married you?"   Was this what it felt like, to feel your heart breaking?  "Did he send you -- to tell me goodbye, at least?"

"Oh Rose, oh no, no," River said, and at last her smooth brow wrinkled.  "He doesn't know me yet.  Yours is so young -- and so hurt -- I've barely even  -- but that's not why I'm here."

Rose stared at the other woman.  She couldn't follow anything she was saying. Was she really mad?

Then River took a deep breath and her brow smoothed out again, and mischief bloomed again on her ageless face.

"I'm here just to help you with the Tardis.  And to tell you… a few things… spoilers really, but some things you do need to know."

"Spoilers?" Rose said weakly.  This River -- Song was it? -- made hardly any sense as far as Rose could tell.

"There's so much he's forbidden me to tell him -- I'm from his future," she stage whispered. "But! -- this is the important part -- " River leaned forward, widening her eyes dramatically -- "so are you!  I can tell you whatever I want!  Brilliant, isn't it?"

Rose shook her head.  Her heart was thumping madly in her chest.  

"You said Tardis," she insisted.  "You could help with the Tardis."

"Yes, of course!"  River chimed.  "The Tardis is practically my grandmother -- auntie -- something or other.  At any rate!  She'll help you out once I explain everything.  And besides,"  River took an opportunity to pull a long drink from Rose's straw, "you're the Bad Wolf.  So."

"… so?" Rose faltered, but the cryptic phrase did ring a bell.  It was everywhere -- not least, in the future where the Doctor had stranded himself.

"So?  Defender of Earth, Time's precious girl?"  River stared at her. "Do you think he falls for everyone like he's fallen for you?"

Rose felt her heart leap into her throat yet again. "But, but, you said, you're his wife."

River leaned ever farther forward across the table at Rose. "So," she whispered dramatically, "are… you!"  She sat back triumphantly, beaming.

Rose's mouth fell open like a fish.  "Wha?"  

"It's not like he's some mortal man, with his threescore and ten…he'll live to be hundreds, thousands of years old.  Of course he has more than one wife!  Be serious.  Can you really expect a man like that, who travels back and forth at will through time and space, to the ends of the universe-- to pin everything he's got on just one other person?  Even someone as magnificent as me! or you," she added, training those coruscating eyes on Rose once again.  

"Why are you telling me this?" Rose asked.  

"Why… I've come to you in your hour of darkness," River said.  She sucked again on Rose's abandoned drink, and rattled the dregs among the ice.

Rose just stared.  

"It's not easy, you know," River said, "loving him. Belonging to him.  He'll try to, to cast you away.  He doesn't mean to be cruel.  He's so afraid…  the universe asks so much of him…. there's no one, no one left but him, you know.  Him and us, the ones he loves.  We pledge ourselves to him, and it keeps him just this side of insane."

Rose understood River at last.  Rose's heart was already pinned on the Doctor forever. No matter what life handed her, she couldn't take any other choice of men -- she could never love another -- the Doctor was the only, only one.  And this vivacious beauty, Mrs. Doctor, Doctor Song, was just the same.

"So you'll help me, then?"  Rose said.

"Of course! I help you, you help him…. there are worlds enough and time for all of us."  

"And -- someday?" Rose couldn't help asking.

"Yes," River said.  

Rose nodded, and impulsively, she reached for River's hands and clasped them in her own.  

"Be good to him, when I'm not around," Rose commanded.

"Trust me, sweetie," River said, "I will.  And you'll do the same."  

Then Rose and River stood, and went out to do what had to be done.  And the universes shook themselves and once more fell into place.  

 

  



End file.
